This invention relates to a disposable injection transmitter having a needle for piercing and residing at a primary injection site and having an auxiliary injection site for receiving a plurality of fluid injections, thereby reducing the number of punctures of the primary injection site.
As is known in the health care field, injections are frequently made by sticking a needle through a wall or membrane of what is known as an injection site and introducing fluid through the needle. These injection sites are provided on various medical devices. Typically the injection site is made of an elastomeric material, such as latex, that is attached to the medical device. For example, a typical IV fluid container, such as a bag, has an injection site on a side wall of the bag or at the end of a short tube leading to the bag, or an IV bottle has an injection site in its upper wall. The injection site, in the form of a wall or membrane, can be penetrated by a needle to allow an injection to be forced into the bag. Depending upon a particular patient's prescription, several separate injections may be made into the bag. In fact, it is typical that more than one injection is made before the bag is put into use.
Once the bag has been filled and the injections have been made, the bag may have a replacement value of three to four hundred dollars. Of course, it is vitally important that the contents of the bag remain sterile. To maintain sterility, the bag must not be exposed to unfiltered atmospheric air. An advantage of the plastic IV bag is that is collapses as it is emptied, as distinguished from a glass bottle which is not collapsible and therefore requires the introduction of filtered air into the area above the fluid level as the bottle is emptied.
It is estimated that before an IV bag is put to use, an average of about three injections are introduced into an IV bag, and sometimes many more, before the bag is used. These injections will range from low to high viscosity fluids injected with small to large needles.
The recurring problem with the elastomeric injection site on the IV bag is that injections can damage it. This damage can occur in the form of leakage through a hole in the injection site made large by multiple needle sticks at the same spot, or leakage caused by coring. Coring occurs when part of the injection site is actually cut or torn away. The coring can be total, in which case a piece of the elastomeric material is separated from the injection site, enters the bag, and leaves a hole in the membrane; or partial in which case a piece of the membrane breaks away but remains attached to the injection site, nevertheless leaving a hole that allows leakage.
As soon as leakage occurs, the contents of the bag are exposed to the atmosphere and to potential contamination, and must be discarded. When coring occurs, there is the additional contamination from a piece of the injection site membrane entering the bag. In either case, the protection of the patient requires that the bag and its contents be discarded. Each time this happens, it can result in a loss of three to four hundred dollars.
Another problem that occur is the introduction of an injecting needle through a side of the injection site by a careless health practitioner or one who is in a hurry. This likewise can cause leakage and loss of the contents of the bag, because it must be discarded.
Another example of a common use of an injection site is on a tributary to a tube that is transmitting fluids to a patient (such as to a vein). In this use of an injection site, it is common that there be periodic times when a plurality of injections are made in the injection site. At each of these times, a plurality of injections are made to introduce a plurality of different medicines into the tube to be conveyed with the fluid as prescribed for a particular patient. In this practice, the problems of creating an open hole because of frequent introduction of needles at the same spot, or of coring, are compounded. Again, any air leakage means the primary source of the fluid, such as an IV bag, must be discarded. Furthermore, the leakage introduces atmospheric contamination directly into the tube and directly into the patient and can be extremely hazardous to the patient's health.
A third example of an injection site that receives multiple injections is sometimes referred to as an "infuse-aid". The infuse-aid is a rubber or elastomeric membrane planted under a patient's skin, usually in a large artery or vein. The infuse-aid is used for patients who have poor veins or other reasons they cannot receive multiple injections, such as a leukemia patient. The infuse-aid implant is very expensive. The membrane costs about $400 and it must be implanted in a hospital, which is costly. The infuse-aid is used for introducing multiple injections on a periodic basis into the patient's vein.
An infuse-aid presents the aforesaid risks of developing a hole that leaks to atmosphere or of coring, either of which can produce immediate contamination to the patient. Since the life of an infuse-aid allows a limited number of injections sticks, generally about 200, it must be replaced on a recurring basis, which is repetitively costly.
The present invention virtually eliminates the problem of contamination of the IV bag and eliminates or greatly reduces the prospects of leakage or coring that has heretofore occurred at injection sites.